We have updated the City of Boroondara's Procurement Policy and internal guidelines to ensure Council's compliance with the Local Government Act 2020 (Vic).

The policy reflects the commercial and social needs and aspirations of our community. This includes sustainability, corporate social responsibility and transparency (see Key changes listed below).

After consultation with the community, Council formally adopted the Procurement Policy 2021-25 and Procurement Guidelines.

Procurement Policy and Procurement Guidelines

The Procurement Policy outlines the following best practice principles for Council’s procurement activities:

  • value for money
  • open and fair competition
  • accountability
  • risk management
  • transparency for our community
  • probity

The Procurement Policy provides the basis of Council’s Procurement Guidelines, which detail our internal procurement procedures. You can download and read these from this page.

Key changes

Our Procurement Policy 2021-25 and associated Procurement Guidelines include these key changes:

  • How we'll achieve value for money

    This supports our guiding principle for procurement and also ensures compliance with the Local Government Act 2020 (Vic).

  • Social and environmental sustainability

    We will place greater importance on this. For example, we will ensure we follow ethical sourcing practices and encourage business with local vendors and with businesses owned by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

  • Publish contracts over $500,000

    We will publish information about contracts worth over $500,000 (exclusive of GST) on our website. This is to enhance transparency and to align with Council’s reporting obligations under the Local Government (Planning and Reporting) Regulations 2020.

  • Online tender website

    We will process all procurement activities over $25,000 (exclusive of GST) through VendorPanel. This is a new online portal that Council use to find suppliers and invite them to quote on work and to publish open tenders.

  • Collaborative procurement

    We will try harder to procure in collaboration with other Councils or public bodies. This will maximise benefits for the community, for example, through increased buying power.

  • Supplier Code of Conduct

    We are introducing a Supplier Code of Conduct to ensure that suppliers who do business with Council are committed to our standards of integrity, ethics and conduct, health and safety, child safe standards and environmental management.

  • Use external advisors for maximum integrity

    Where a procurement activity is complex, sensitive or subject to a high degree of public scrutiny, we will increase the integrity of the procurement by engaging external probity advisors for certain values or under certain circumstances.

Visit the Tenders and contracts page on our website for information on VendorPanel, published contracts and more.

Have your say

We would like you to tell us if we're on the right track with the Procurement Policy and Procurement Guidelines. The survey closes on Monday 28 February 2022.